University Costs and Basic Research

Pubished: New York Times Magazine

Your writer argues that 80 percent of basic research is "idle, tenure earning junk with little or no social value." Ouch!
He may be right as far as outcomes are concerned, but he is only right in hindsight. Ex ante, we cannot distinguish between the 20 percent that leads to insight and the 80 percent that languishes in academic journals. The very essence of basic research is its unpredictability. To generate the gold, we have to put up with the dross as byproduct.

Student Fees

The proposals to shift the cost of university education from society to the benefiting student represents yet another breakdown in the intergenerational compound that has sustained our country over 150 years (Power To The Students -- editorial, Oct 8).
Those of my generation (I am 54) who advocate the user-pay philosophy are in many cases the beneficiaries of the cheap and plentiful education opportunities of the later fifties and early sixties. These csts were paid by our parents; it is only right that we should pay the cost for our successors.
The proposals for reform should initially focus on ensuring that the current beneficiaries of a university education make an additional conctribution so that our successors can enjoy their schooling without the spectre of a significnat debt at the end of their four years at university.